Having been completely blind since the age of 6, Charlie Wilks doesn’t have much daylight at his disposal when he steps on the football field for Emporia Middle School’s eighth-grade team.
Good thing, then, that he has the tenacious mentality of a nose guard to scare the living daylights out of the guys on the other side of the ball.
Once the ball’s snapped, Charlie’s off on his mission to blast through the offensive line, hit the ballcarrier and bring him down.
“It’s like as soon as I hear ‘Hut,’ I’m like, ‘Waaaaaaaahhhh!’” Charlie said. “And I just take out whoever gets in my way.”
Charlie’s passion for football and on-field tenacity are things he came by before surgery to remove a brain tumor, discovered when he was 5, took his sight away. He was inspired to play by his grandfather, Al Reynolds, who played offensive guard for the Kansas City Chiefs during the 1960s.
“I was naturally interested in it when I was a kid,” Charlie said, “because I’d sit down on the couch and be watching TV, and all of a sudden I see these guys going, ‘Waaaaaaahhh — I’m gonna kill you!’ You see these guys hitting each other, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I wanna do that.’”
When Charlie joined EMS’ seventh-grade team last year, head coach Beau Welch knew he would learn as much about adapting a blind person to football as Charlie would learn about football itself.
Welch, now an an assistant on the eighth-grade team to head coach Mike Schoenberger, said getting Charlie a position on the field was a matter of finding a spot for him to be safe and comfortable. Nose guard turned out to be a good fit.
“He just loves attacking,” Welch said. “In fact, last year — in a game he never did, but in practice — he made about three or four tackles where he busted through the line, and they went up the middle, and he hit the running back.
“He stayed low, the running back tried to avoid him, but he couldn’t, because he was low, and he got into his legs. That was pretty exciting for everybody.”
His mother, Jennifer Cunningham, said she was a little nervous when Charlie first talked about playing football; light and shadows are all he can pick up with his eyes.
“Because, I mean, he can’t see a hit coming, or anything like that,” she said. “But I’ve never tried to stop him from doing anything, so I told him to go ahead and try it.”
During games, both Charlie’s teammates and members of the opposing team help him get positioned before the snap and after a play is over, and Charlie’s grateful for the help.
“(Last year), I can still remember one of the teams just showed him so much courtesy and everything,” Schoenberger said. “‘Hey, you gotta watch out for (Charlie) out there, he’ll get ya.’ And they helped him back up and all that kind of stuff.
“I know the kids here, they’ll treat him normal. They’ll tease him, they’ll razz him just like anybody else. Which is good.”
One of Charlie’s friends on the team, Hershel DuBree, has known Charlie since sixth grade and helps him get around during the school day. Hershel said Charlie, like most blind people, has more strength in his other senses. He can even tell when teammates are slacking off, and he lets them hear about it.
“He just says, ‘Quit slacking,’” Hershel said. “Most people usually listen to him. He’s pretty strong, too.”
Along with nose guard, Charlie also played some at center last season, and this year he’s getting some more work in at that position.
“This is what I want to be doing, and this is something I can do, that nobody would ever suspect a blind person to do,” Charlie said. “...The reason that I come out here, most of all, is my teammates. I get to work with people, I get to make new friends, all that stuff. And I’m very competitive.”
Charlie is asked how long he’d like to continue playing football. Would he like to try to play for Emporia High when he arrives there?
“Farther than that,” he said. “I’ll (play in) college, if I can, and pro, and be the first blind pro player.”
With Charlie’s drive and enthusiasm, don’t rule those goals out.
“He’s got a lot of life to him,” Welch said. “I mean, that’s all that really needs to be said. It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you do — he’s gonna approach you the same way, and he’s gonna have a lot of fun with you. ...
“It could be a teacher in class, it could be a student — he’s gonna have fun with any situation he’s dealt, and that’s what’s great about him.”
Comments
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
Posted by Denise_Dorcey (anonymous) on August 23, 2008 at 11:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Go get 'em Charlie! Jack cheers you on.
Posted by barefootin (anonymous) on August 23, 2008 at 12:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Rah, Rah, Charlie!!!!
Posted by nks (anonymous) on August 23, 2008 at 3:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Maybe some of us adults can learn some lessons from a young man like this.
I especially liked reading how the opponents help Charlie out too. Maybe sportsmanship is still alive.
Posted by billclinton (anonymous) on August 24, 2008 at 4:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow. Inspiring story. Where is ESPN on this one?
Posted by slipandslide (anonymous) on August 24, 2008 at 11:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
charlie's determination will take him far in life. its great hearing about a child who is enthusiastic about life.
Posted by OutsiderJ (anonymous) on August 25, 2008 at 4:21 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Truly inspirational. I wouldn't rule out college or pro play for this young man. As long as he has a good system to find the ball carrier/quarterback, he could go all the way. I've personally known several blind people in my life. All very different in personality and situation, but the one thing that I noticed to be true across the board is that they were the most adaptable and tenacious people around.
Keep it up Charlie!!!
Posted by slipandslide (anonymous) on August 25, 2008 at 7:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
this kid is amazing, some day he will become an inspiration for others and maybe he already is. what ever he becomes i think he has a bright future.
Posted by citizen (anonymous) on August 26, 2008 at 1:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
My son is an eigth grader and in football. Last year when I went to the games it took the other team about 10-15 minutes into the game before they knew he was blind!! I think his mom too is amazing. I have a hard time letting my child do things for I am afraid he is going to get hurt. And here she is, so brave to encourage her son and allow him to be a boy. We can learn from Charlie and his mom.
Posted by ksflwrpetals (anonymous) on August 30, 2008 at 6:13 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)